Postoperative radiotherapy with or without concurrent chemotherapy for oral squamous cell carcinoma in patients with three or more minor risk factors: a propensity score matching analysis

BACKGROUND: To investigate the advantage of concurrent chemotherapy with postoperative radiotherapy (RT) of oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) in patients with three or more minor risk factors. METHODS: Minor risk factors included pT4 disease, pN1 disease, margin ≤ 4 mm, poor differentiation, perineural invasion, vessel or lymphatic invasion, and tumor invasion depth ≥ 11 mm. Surgery was the primary treatment, followed by RT or concurrent chemoradiation (CCRT). After propensity score matching, 34 patients in each treatment group were selected for comparison. RESULTS: The median follow-up for living patients was 86.4 months (range: 47–189 months). The 5-year overall survival of the RT and CCRT groups was 35.3% and 67.2% (p = 0.018), respectively. The 5-year recurrence-free survival of the RT group and CCRT group was 42.6% and 75.4% (p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: Postoperative CCRT for patients with three or more minor risk factors increased recurrence-free and overall survival.